Have you noticed the government is shutdown?  For me, the only way I know it is by listening to the news telling me the sky is falling and the government is not in place to stop it.  All this is over $5 billion to build a wall along our southern border to protect the citizens of our country from illegal immigration.  I doubt it would take long for the average citizen to go through this budget to find enough waste to fund the $5 billion to go toward the wall.  I recognize that many of these illegal aliens are honest, law abiding, hardworking people that simply want to make a better life for themselves.  I also know that when they cross the border illegally they are intentionally breaking our laws putting themselves immediately at odds with the majority of our society  who are also honest, law abiding, and hard working.  The foremost responsibility of any government is to protect the nation's borders and it's citizens.

Everyone reading this, I want to ask a favor of you.  Go outside and look up and you will see, the sky is not falling.  If it happens to be raining or snowing, that's not the sky falling, it's a natural phenomenon called weather and we had it when the government was in full operation.  I've been hesitant to write about my views on the government shutdown until I heard [Andrew Wilkow](https://wilkowmajority.com/) discussing it on his radio show and realized others probably feel the same way Wilkow and I do, the government should stay shutdown.

You've probably seen stories of trash building up at National Parks and National Forest as well as them being closed.  This is because workers at National Parks and Forests are considered non-essential government employees, and they are non-essential.  Why don't the people that go to these facilities do what the vast majority of serious outdoorsmen do, clean up after themselves and take the trash home.  Hopefully everyone knows some of these people, those that hunt, fish, and don't consider it camping to pull up in an RV to hook up to water and electricity.  You know those people that are more likely to belong to the NRA than to the Sierra Club or Greenpeace.

In addition to these workers being non-essential, their jobs can be considered unconstitutional.  Look back at the post on [Federal Government Overreach](https://steemit.com/politics/@mikehamm/federal-government-overreach).  Nowhere in the enumerated powers of Congress, which makes the laws in our country, is the authority to provide National Parks and Forests.  I'm not saying we shouldn't have them, but why not have the individual states responsible for these facilities and employees rather than the federal government?

It's been reported most of the I.R.S. is shutdown which will cause a slowdown in processing returns.  Think about it, most of the I.R.S. is shutdown and it only slows them down?  How much could we cut this agency without causing real problems.  Let's keep them shutdown to see what we can really do without.  If it turns out we need to bring and 2% to 3% back for this and another 5% for that, let's leave the government shutdown and see what happens.

As stated earlier, the main task of any government is to protect it's borders and citizens.  Why are military troops and TSA considered non-essential during a shutdown?  Pay for these people should continue because they execute the main responsibility of the government.  During these shutdowns, the Postal Service continues but our military doesn't get paid?  Plus, in this age of computerization, how difficult can it be to push a few buttons to initiate the distribution of paychecks either electronically or through the Postal Service.

Let's keep the government shutdown until Democrat's decide to fund the defense of our southern border.  If we need to change the classification of some workers from non-essential to essential we can do it in small percentages.  Personally, I don't believe most of those in our government want it to stay shutdown because the public will eventually come to the realization that our government is too large and needs to be scaled back.

You may recognize, as I do, this approach probably violates the union contract between the government and government employees.  This is easy enough for President Trump to fix.  On January 17, 1962 President John F. Kennedy signed Executive Order #10988 granting collective bargaining rights to government employees.  Since that time there has been no legislation passed protecting that right.  Just as easily as President Kennedy grated the collective bargaining rights to government employees it could be taken away by President Trump.

If you think the sky is falling now with the government shutdown, just wait until the government unions are gone.  For those of us who truly want to see the Washington swamp drained, here's a large plug to pull from near the bottom.